Winches are devices mounted on vehicles that can be used for traction and is mainly used for rescue of vehicles in harsh environments. When a vehicle gets stuck in mud or similar rough terrain and has difficulty in landing on four wheels, the winch can be fixed to objects in the surrounding environment to pull out the vehicle. Winches can also be applied to tow large obstacles such as logs. Existing electric winches are mainly composed of a motor, a transmission shaft, a gear reduction box, a winding drum and the like. The gear reduction box connects the power between the motor and the winding drum, so that a steel rope wound on the winding drum can produce a traction force to the vehicle. In prior arts, the winch needs to be manually operated to perform various operations, and it is not yet possible to achieve a full-automatic operation through using a single button or remote control. Such a winch would not be convenient for the user. Because winches are generally used in harsh driving environments or accidents, the requirements for ease of use and reliability are higher. In emergencies it may be necessary to immediately stop or start the winch. It is necessary to provide a reliable automatic clutch device to control the coupling of the drive motor with the winding drum in a robust manner.
When the winch retracts the steel rope wound on the winding drum, the motor will work at a relatively high power in the range of 1-2 KW to drive the winding drum. At this time, if the rope is cross-wound on the winding drum due to sudden changes in the direction of the external force, mechanical damage may be caused to the winch, and besides, usage next would be greatly impeded. The user's manual readjustment of the cross-wound steel rope is both laborious and dangerous. There is a need for a more efficient mechanism that automatically adjusts the retraction of the steel rope so that it can be neatly wound around the winding drum.
In addition, existing electric winches generally have a control unit, part of the transmission mechanisms, a power supply, and a handle mounted above the winch, so the winch will consume a lot of space when installed in front of a vehicle. If these parts can be reduced in size and accommodated in the interior of the winch, it will be possible to reduce the space occupied by winch and provide more preferable visual effects. In addition, an existing electric winch generally installs a control unit, part of the transmission mechanisms, a power supply, and a handle above the winch, so the winch will consume a lot of space when installed in front of a vehicle. If these parts can be reduced in size and accommodated in the interior of the winch, it will be possible to reduce the space occupied by winch and provide preferable visual effects. There is also a need for a winch with more compact structures.